Morning, Cloudy We left the Barrett Train station and Mauser’s contact, heading up a street called “Wisconsin Ave.”. Milwaukee’s a pretty bleak city, not much life to it these days or at least in the downtown area. Anyway, there hadn’t been any trouble yet, though the lifelessness of the cityscape around us implied we weren’t going to get any. Either way, Ray and “Bee” were constantly keeping a look out whenever reached an intersection. When we reached Wisconsin and 6th St. we picked up on a sound that was rumbling nearby. Audra dropped the obvious question. “Think that noise could be a problem?” “Noises aren’t dangerous, it’s what causes them that could be,” Ray spoke. He’d pissed her off now. Audra leaned forward, looking right into his eyes. “Ok, smartass, then maybe you can take that shiny, new, toy you got from Mauser and scope out the area from the top of that building.” Ray looked up. “Sure, no problem, just don’t fall behind, ok kid?” With that we started up the weathered building’s stairwell, Rabies keeping Audra from clobbering him. It took two or three minutes before we reached the top. Note to self: Don’t try to carry sixty pounds of stuff up thirteen floors. We were on the roof huffin’ and puffin’ our bloomin’ lungs to death. To think after joining the military and later being a on a police force; I should be in better shape. Dad used to say how strong the Scottish people were. Hah! Damn liar. The hike up made Ray hungry. So he pulled out a sandwich before he took a look around. If we hadn’t taken a breather he probably would’ve collapsed. Audra, Bees, and I had only needed a moment to recover. Ray was still eating his food. “You gonna to need to eat lunch everytime we do a little respiratory exercise here Ray,” I said, poking fun at him. He gave me the finger. “Fuck you.” His words muffled due to his full mouth. It sounded ridiculous. Either way, Ray’s an ass, he can dole out the jokes, the snide comments, but he can’t take it when we do it to him. I’m was willing to bet that he was the kind of guy who’d point a gun at just to get them to shut up, to get them to do what he wants. He had no problem shooting that guy in Seattle. Finally, Ray decided to get up and take a look through the scope. We were in luck; he didn’t see anything that posed a threat except for a large crowd outside of what Bees called, “Grand Avenue Mall”. She had mentioned on the train ride from Seattle that she had been to Milwaukee before; her knowledge of the area could prove useful. Bees and Audra thought there might be a rave going on over there; Ray on the other hand wanted to continue on our mission. Audra and he argued over that while Bees took a look around the roof. Raves, I’d seen a few of them while traveling. The attendants are usually young people. They toss themselves to the music, the drugs, the alcohol, and the sex. I thought about my daughter, Lily, and what I would’ve thought if she went out raving. Denise, my wife, would’ve thrown a full blown fit, that’s for sure. I don’t think I would’ve been too happy about it either. They’re gone now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try to do right by Audra and maybe Bees. I’m not their father, I won’t even try to be, but I shouldn’t let them do anything too risky, that’s how a team works. We need to watch each other’s backs. “I think we need to continue the mission. The sooner we do our job, the more time we’ll have to do sightseeing and anything else you need to take care of while we’re here.” Audra let out a defeated sigh, Rabies just shrugged. It’s not exactly easy to please both parties; still, I think I made a better impression than Ray did. Not that being more likable than Ray is hard to do.
Noon, Still Cloudy After we finally left the building on 6th Street, we continued up Wisconsin Ave. Nothing unusual, almost no activity, block after block. Eventually we reached 13th Street and Wisconsin, the School of Higher Learning looming before us. It was one of those typical red brick, white door, school building from the older days, before I was born. It felt inviting, which was more than I could say about a lot of the buildings around here. “Should we knock,” Audra asked plainly. Ray let out a laugh, while I offered a more meaningful response. “The first row of windows is pretty low here. I think we should take a few peaks inside to see what we’re walking into.” The rest agreed and diverged from the front doors, and wandered along the nearest wall. It was then we first viewed the Keepers of the Flame, or rather, viewed the red cloaked figures overlooking adolescents taking apart, but also using all kinds of technology. We entered the building through the white doors from before. We made our way down the first small hallway into an expansive foyer with a statue of a man in the center. It looked pretty new, perhaps a monument to the Keeper’s leader. It wasn’t a very good statue, but what I did pick out was the stern look on the man’s face. He looked like a real hard-ass. Many of the students and some faculty were meandering about, giving us weird looks as they passed by. Audra pulled out her Nook, and I pulled out my iPhone. I knew how to use it, except for the internet, never been near a working satellite tower long enough to connect. Eventually some of the students took notice of our gadgets and began inquiring about them. Audra, being the opportunistic person she is, took this moment to ask who the statue was of and where we could find Mauser’s contact, the headmaster of this school. The boy responded quickly. “That is our headmaster, Franz Draco. He’s probably the man your employer sent you to meet.” “Can you take us to him?” “Yeah, I can do that,” the young boy said, his face brimming with pride. I looked at the statue one last time. Mr. Draco had to have been compensating for something, like being born with only one testicle or some other ego crushing imperfection. Four floors later and we arrived at Franz Draco’s office, our escort leaving us outside while he gave the headmaster news of our arrival. Ray was listening at the door but heard nothing suspicious, I told him to knock it off. The boy exited and Draco called us in. It was a nice office, though it was filled with boxes and shelves littered with all kinds of gadgets. The man was maybe ten, twenty years older than me; that much was clear. His overall appearance wasn’t very threatening but instead enigmatic, like he had plenty of knowledge and secrets to hide. One thing I remember from my time in the military was that even old men are capable of hiding pistols in their boots and daggers in their sleeves. Mr. Franz Draco was no exception. Draco relayed our mission to us and quickly shuffled us out. The mall Bee had identified before had a technology store that was currently being used as a 24/7 rave/party/cesspool of undesirable behavior. Our job was to acquire the sound/audio equipment being used by the DJ at the rave. Audra and Bee squealed at this request for obvious reasons. Ray rolled his eyes. I’m still not sure what his motives are. The reward for the mission was substantial, an uncounted monetary amount of cash, and two boxes of kindles and chargers for our own gadgets. Not bad, there was just one problem. Of course I was going to bring it up. “You want us to steal this equipment? Isn’t that, you know, wrong?” Franz blew a puff of smoke out of his pipe, cocking a smile. “These ravers are hardly what I’d call good people Mr. Carlisle. The place is a cesspool of sex, drugs, and all sorts of undesirable behavior. You’d be doing them all a favor by breaking the trance the music puts them under.” In my mind I wanted to believe that he was right, and that this was for the best. Something was off though, the man’s a smooth talker. He likely has some sort of agenda. This heist was probably a part of it. I decided to play his game, for now. “Alright, I’m in.” “That’s good to hear.” We left immediately, starring down the same road we had walked here on. It was still quiet, still inactive. Milwaukee wasn’t spectacular, nor was it extremely dangerous at first glance. Perhaps the rave would be different. We walked for almost an hour before we reached the crowd at Grand Avenue Mall. It was dense as people were hanging out around the entrance of the building, talking, playing music, drawing on the sidewalks with, oddly enough, chalk. When I think of colored chalk, I think of little kids making artwork on their driveways, not adults using it on every surface available. It’s like I’ve run across the post-apocalyptic version of the “the lost boys”, no one here is really grown up. They’re all trapped in an act, trying to shield themselves from the reality of the world. We waded through the crowds. I think I felt someone trying to pick-pocket me at one point, yet Audra seemed pretty aware of everyone around her, the rest of us looked lost.
Evening, Drizzling We walked inside and decided to split up. Audra and Bee were going to go “undercover” and by that they meant “do what we always do”, which was going to be dancing, drinks, drugs and seducing men into giving them information. Crude…but effective. Ray, on the other hand, walked off with some lass, talkin’ about showing her a good time. Yeah right, more like showing her into his pants, the pervert. Me, I was going to walk through that crowd and have a chat with the DJ. Should have been easy enough right? It was loud enough. There different colored lights pulsating around the ceiling and the whole room smelt like a sweaty human body, every damn crevice of it. After giving some people some nasty looks I got caught in a mosh pit. I took a look around, all of these people, young and old, numbed up on drugs, booze, sex. I thought about my daughter again, she’d have been almost teenager by now. Was this the world I wanted her to grow up in? All of these people, throwing it all away because so much bad had happened to them and the rest of the world. Was this the destiny of our people, to let the world waste away? Was I one of them? No. I may have left, I may have run, but I’m not looking for a good time, I’m looking for clarity, for peace. I was taken from my thoughts as a man in the crowd reached out and grabbed my cloak. I instinctively shoved him hard sending him into one of the support pillars in the building. The whole room shook and the music stopped. The lights in the room were aimed in my direction; the stares of everyone in the room were on me. How was I going to talk my way out of this one? I guess it’s time for some of that old Scottish charm we’re famous for.
Center Stage (Final)
Morning, Cloudy
We left the Barrett Train station and Mauser’s contact, heading up a street called “Wisconsin Ave.”. Milwaukee’s a pretty bleak city, not much life to it these days or at least in the downtown area. Anyway, there hadn’t been any trouble yet, though the lifelessness of the cityscape around us implied we weren’t going to get any. Either way, Ray and “Bee” were constantly keeping a look out whenever reached an intersection. When we reached Wisconsin and 6th St. we picked up on a sound that was rumbling nearby.
Audra dropped the obvious question. “Think that noise could be a problem?”
“Noises aren’t dangerous, it’s what causes them that could be,” Ray spoke. He’d pissed her off now.
Audra leaned forward, looking right into his eyes. “Ok, smartass, then maybe you can take that shiny, new, toy you got from Mauser and scope out the area from the top of that building.”
Ray looked up. “Sure, no problem, just don’t fall behind, ok kid?” With that we started up the weathered building’s stairwell, Rabies keeping Audra from clobbering him. It took two or three minutes before we reached the top.
Note to self: Don’t try to carry sixty pounds of stuff up thirteen floors. We were on the roof huffin’ and puffin’ our bloomin’ lungs to death. To think after joining the military and later being a on a police force; I should be in better shape. Dad used to say how strong the Scottish people were. Hah! Damn liar.
The hike up made Ray hungry. So he pulled out a sandwich before he took a look around. If we hadn’t taken a breather he probably would’ve collapsed. Audra, Bees, and I had only needed a moment to recover. Ray was still eating his food.
“You gonna to need to eat lunch everytime we do a little respiratory exercise here Ray,” I said, poking fun at him.
He gave me the finger. “Fuck you.” His words muffled due to his full mouth. It sounded ridiculous. Either way, Ray’s an ass, he can dole out the jokes, the snide comments, but he can’t take it when we do it to him. I’m was willing to bet that he was the kind of guy who’d point a gun at just to get them to shut up, to get them to do what he wants. He had no problem shooting that guy in Seattle.
Finally, Ray decided to get up and take a look through the scope. We were in luck; he didn’t see anything that posed a threat except for a large crowd outside of what Bees called, “Grand Avenue Mall”. She had mentioned on the train ride from Seattle that she had been to Milwaukee before; her knowledge of the area could prove useful.
Bees and Audra thought there might be a rave going on over there; Ray on the other hand wanted to continue on our mission. Audra and he argued over that while Bees took a look around the roof.
Raves, I’d seen a few of them while traveling. The attendants are usually young people. They toss themselves to the music, the drugs, the alcohol, and the sex. I thought about my daughter, Lily, and what I would’ve thought if she went out raving. Denise, my wife, would’ve thrown a full blown fit, that’s for sure. I don’t think I would’ve been too happy about it either. They’re gone now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try to do right by Audra and maybe Bees. I’m not their father, I won’t even try to be, but I shouldn’t let them do anything too risky, that’s how a team works.
We need to watch each other’s backs. “I think we need to continue the mission. The sooner we do our job, the more time we’ll have to do sightseeing and anything else you need to take care of while we’re here.” Audra let out a defeated sigh, Rabies just shrugged.
It’s not exactly easy to please both parties; still, I think I made a better impression than Ray did. Not that being more likable than Ray is hard to do.
Noon, Still Cloudy
After we finally left the building on 6th Street, we continued up Wisconsin Ave. Nothing unusual, almost no activity, block after block. Eventually we reached 13th Street and Wisconsin, the School of Higher Learning looming before us. It was one of those typical red brick, white door, school building from the older days, before I was born. It felt inviting, which was more than I could say about a lot of the buildings around here.
“Should we knock,” Audra asked plainly.
Ray let out a laugh, while I offered a more meaningful response. “The first row of windows is pretty low here. I think we should take a few peaks inside to see what we’re walking into.” The rest agreed and diverged from the front doors, and wandered along the nearest wall.
It was then we first viewed the Keepers of the Flame, or rather, viewed the red cloaked figures overlooking adolescents taking apart, but also using all kinds of technology. We entered the building through the white doors from before. We made our way down the first small hallway into an expansive foyer with a statue of a man in the center. It looked pretty new, perhaps a monument to the Keeper’s leader. It wasn’t a very good statue, but what I did pick out was the stern look on the man’s face. He looked like a real hard-ass. Many of the students and some faculty were meandering about, giving us weird looks as they passed by. Audra pulled out her Nook, and I pulled out my iPhone. I knew how to use it, except for the internet, never been near a working satellite tower long enough to connect. Eventually some of the students took notice of our gadgets and began inquiring about them.
Audra, being the opportunistic person she is, took this moment to ask who the statue was of and where we could find Mauser’s contact, the headmaster of this school.
The boy responded quickly. “That is our headmaster, Franz Draco. He’s probably the man your employer sent you to meet.”
“Can you take us to him?”
“Yeah, I can do that,” the young boy said, his face brimming with pride.
I looked at the statue one last time. Mr. Draco had to have been compensating for something, like being born with only one testicle or some other ego crushing imperfection.
Four floors later and we arrived at Franz Draco’s office, our escort leaving us outside while he gave the headmaster news of our arrival. Ray was listening at the door but heard nothing suspicious, I told him to knock it off. The boy exited and Draco called us in. It was a nice office, though it was filled with boxes and shelves littered with all kinds of gadgets. The man was maybe ten, twenty years older than me; that much was clear. His overall appearance wasn’t very threatening but instead enigmatic, like he had plenty of knowledge and secrets to hide. One thing I remember from my time in the military was that even old men are capable of hiding pistols in their boots and daggers in their sleeves. Mr. Franz Draco was no exception.
Draco relayed our mission to us and quickly shuffled us out. The mall Bee had identified before had a technology store that was currently being used as a 24/7 rave/party/cesspool of undesirable behavior. Our job was to acquire the sound/audio equipment being used by the DJ at the rave. Audra and Bee squealed at this request for obvious reasons. Ray rolled his eyes. I’m still not sure what his motives are. The reward for the mission was substantial, an uncounted monetary amount of cash, and two boxes of kindles and chargers for our own gadgets. Not bad, there was just one problem.
Of course I was going to bring it up. “You want us to steal this equipment? Isn’t that, you know, wrong?”
Franz blew a puff of smoke out of his pipe, cocking a smile. “These ravers are hardly what I’d call good people Mr. Carlisle. The place is a cesspool of sex, drugs, and all sorts of undesirable behavior. You’d be doing them all a favor by breaking the trance the music puts them under.” In my mind I wanted to believe that he was right, and that this was for the best. Something was off though, the man’s a smooth talker. He likely has some sort of agenda. This heist was probably a part of it.
I decided to play his game, for now. “Alright, I’m in.”
“That’s good to hear.”
We left immediately, starring down the same road we had walked here on. It was still quiet, still inactive. Milwaukee wasn’t spectacular, nor was it extremely dangerous at first glance. Perhaps the rave would be different. We walked for almost an hour before we reached the crowd at Grand Avenue Mall. It was dense as people were hanging out around the entrance of the building, talking, playing music, drawing on the sidewalks with, oddly enough, chalk. When I think of colored chalk, I think of little kids making artwork on their driveways, not adults using it on every surface available. It’s like I’ve run across the post-apocalyptic version of the “the lost boys”, no one here is really grown up. They’re all trapped in an act, trying to shield themselves from the reality of the world. We waded through the crowds. I think I felt someone trying to pick-pocket me at one point, yet Audra seemed pretty aware of everyone around her, the rest of us looked lost.
Evening, Drizzling
We walked inside and decided to split up. Audra and Bee were going to go “undercover” and by that they meant “do what we always do”, which was going to be dancing, drinks, drugs and seducing men into giving them information. Crude…but effective. Ray, on the other hand, walked off with some lass, talkin’ about showing her a good time. Yeah right, more like showing her into his pants, the pervert. Me, I was going to walk through that crowd and have a chat with the DJ. Should have been easy enough right? It was loud enough. There different colored lights pulsating around the ceiling and the whole room smelt like a sweaty human body, every damn crevice of it. After giving some people some nasty looks I got caught in a mosh pit. I took a look around, all of these people, young and old, numbed up on drugs, booze, sex. I thought about my daughter again, she’d have been almost teenager by now. Was this the world I wanted her to grow up in? All of these people, throwing it all away because so much bad had happened to them and the rest of the world. Was this the destiny of our people, to let the world waste away? Was I one of them? No. I may have left, I may have run, but I’m not looking for a good time, I’m looking for clarity, for peace.
I was taken from my thoughts as a man in the crowd reached out and grabbed my cloak. I instinctively shoved him hard sending him into one of the support pillars in the building. The whole room shook and the music stopped. The lights in the room were aimed in my direction; the stares of everyone in the room were on me.
How was I going to talk my way out of this one? I guess it’s time for some of that old Scottish charm we’re famous for.